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Pickled cucumbers are great to serve next to a steak, a stew or in burgers. Learn how to pickle cucumbers at home with this very easy, family recipe!
How To Pickle Cucumbers With Vinegar
My mom showed me how to pickle cucumbers at a very early age and I’ve been using this recipe for a lot of years, with great success. We enjoy serving homemade pickles with lots of our meals and I absolutely love pickling cucumbers as well as other vegetables like Pickled Green Tomatoes or red bell peppers. I like canning my own stuff as I know all ingredients I use are healthy and good for my family, no preservatives or other chemicals involved.
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If you love pickles I’ll show you how to pickle cucumbers in just a minute; you can easily make your own pickles with this easy and quick pickled cucumbers recipe! You will totally enjoy canning cucumbers, your pickles will taste amazing and the recipe only takes a few simple ingredients. It’s not time consuming either! And if you have friends that like homemade stuff, you could use a pretty jar when making the pickles and offer it as a gift.
There are probably many recipes out there teaching how to pickle cucumbers but I swear by my mom’s pickled cucumber recipe! It gives such tasty, crisp pickles that are not too spicy or salty. Ready to learn how to make pickled cucumbers? Check out these super easy steps!
How to pickle cucumbers
For 3 jars you’ll need fresh pickling cucumbers, sugar, salt, peppercorns, mustard seeds, vinegar, garlic and bay leaves. And of course water to boil the jars.
How do you pickle cucumbers?
1. Wash the cucumbers very well and keep only the healthy ones.
2. Sterilize jars well (here’s an article on the topic)
3. Place cucumbers in jars (don’t overcrowd them).
4. Add vinegar to the bottom of the jar (about 2 fingers).
5. Put one teaspoon of sugar and one of salt in each jar.
6. Add 2 large bay leaves (or 3 small), about 30 peppercorns and 1 teaspoon mustard seeds, per jar (if you chose to use garlic, put 2-3 cloves per jar at this stage).
7. Fill with water almost up to the rim.
8. Tightly screw the lid on.
9. Place jars in a large pot and cover with water up to the lid.
10. Bring to boil and continue boiling for 5 minutes.
11. Leave to cool for 1 hour, without removing from the pot.
12. Transfer to a baking sheet, bottoms up, and place in a pre heated oven on low, for 15 minutes. They’ll change color which is exactly what you want.
These pickles are good to serve after about 1 month. I like to allow them more time in the jar for the best flavor and we usually end up serving them after 2 months.
More Pickling Recipes You Might Like:
Homemade pickled cucumbers recipe
Ingredients
- 4 lbs fresh pickling cucumbers
- 3 teaspoons sugar
- 3 teaspoons salt
- peppercorns
- yellow mustard seeds
- white vinegar
- garlic optional; I didn't use as my daughter doesn't like it
- 6 large dry bay leaves or 9 small
- 3 jars
- water
Instructions
- Wash the cucumbers very well and keep only the healthy ones. Sterilize jars well
- Place into jars (don't overcrowd them).
- Add vinegar to the bottom of the jar (about 2 fingers).
- Put one teaspoon of sugar and one of salt in each jar. Add 2 large bay leaves (or 3 small), about 30 peppercorns and 1 teaspoon mustard seeds, per jar (if you chose to use garlic, put 2-3 cloves per jar at this stage).
- Fill with water almost up to the rim.
- Tightly screw the lid on. Place jars in a large pot and cover with water up to the lid.
- Bring to boil and continue boiling for 5 minutes. They'll start changing color.
- Leave to cool for 1 hour, without removing from the pot. Transfer to a baking sheet, bottoms up, and place in a pre heated oven on low, for 15 minutes. Good to serve after about 1 month.
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Hi Petro, Thank you for the recipe. Is there a way to skip oven-baking process, like boiling jars longer?
Hi, Sophia! Thanks for stopping by! I wouldn’t skip the oven step as this is how you truly seal the jars/lids. Boiling the jars longer will only make the pickles softer instead of keeping them crisp. I the past I have tried skipping the oven process too, and that’s what I ended up with, soft pickles. Still very tasty but not crisp at all (and we love crisp pickles!)
wawoo. You know your stuff :) Thank you so much!
Do I have to “burp” (release gas) from these periodically during the month before we eat them? I don’t want my jar to explode
Hi Shelley. They should be tightly sealed, much like the store bought ones. So no “burping” should be necessary. I’ve learned this from my mother and for the past 40+ years, none of us had any issues following the method highlighted in the article.
I want a pickle cucumber recipe, not one that is canned.
This IS a pickle recipe, Karen! You can choose to can it or not, up to you. If you’re not canning it, the pickles won’t last as long though
How long and at what temp do you bake??
Hi Tanya. It’s in the instructions. Low temp (depends on your oven; around 400 F should do fine) for about 15 minutes, until cucumbers change color
I love pickles! Making them and eating them. My Grandmother taught me how to make the Bread and Butter Pickle Slices and I have been making them for almost 30 years now. Thank you for the Garlic Pickle Recipe. I look forward to making them soon.
Hi, Sherry. So happy you liked my recipe! I never tried bread and butter pickle slices but sounds super delicious, I’ll have to give it a try soon. Thanks!
These look wonderful, and I would like to try them with some lemon cucumbers. Are you using quart jars in the recipe?
Thanks so much, Carrie. I’ve been using different jar sizes, the ones in the photos are pint jars.
Thank you for such a quick response! Unfortunately, I was way too excited to wait and tried it with quart jars. Will it still work? Is a tsp enough salt for a quart jar? Also, a little liquid leaked from a couple of the jars during the upside down in the oven process. Has this ever happened to you? Let me know if you think I need to start over… I am pretty new to canning, and have only done fruit jam in the past. Thank you Petro!
Love, love, love pickles. Thanks for sharing!